1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a moving mechanism and an electronic device with the moving mechanism, and more particularly to a moving mechanism characterized in that a positioning mechanism is disposed on a moving body and an electronic device with such a moving mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, there has been known a moving mechanism provided with an actuator that rotates a moving body in response to a signal emitted from a drive circuit. For example, a drive signal of a given frequency is produced by a variable transmitter and then applied to a piezo-electric vibrator (piezoelectric element) through a power amplifier, to thereby allow the piezo-electric vibrator to generate an oscillatory wave. Also, the piezo-electric vibrator transmits the oscillatory wave to a vibrating body which is formed of an elastic body to which the piezo-electric vibrator is joined, and a substance which is in contact with the elastic body under a given pressure, that is, an ultrasonic motor that operates the moving body is exemplified as a conventional moving mechanism with that actuator (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 8-251952).
However, in the conventional moving mechanism thus structure, although a driving force that allows the moving body to move in a given direction can be obtained, because there exists no means for detecting a position of the moving body or regulating the moving amount, the position of the moving body cannot be accurately fixed at a given position.
Also, there has been proposed a method in which positional information is detected by an encoder or the like to control the actuator as means for accurately detecting and regulating the position of the moving body. However,the encoder per se is expensive, and also in order to move the moving body to a desired position, means for processing the positional information outputted from the encoder and means for controlling the actuator are required, thereby leading to a circumstance in which the device is not prevented from being complicated or large-sized and the product price is not prevented from rising.
The present invention has been made to eliminate the above problems, and therefore an object of the present invention is to obtain a moving mechanism which is capable of accurate positioning with a simple structure without using detecting means such as an encoder.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a moving mechanism, comprising: an actuator that rotates a moving body; a support plate having said actuator; a positioning member disposed on said support member; a first contact disposed on said moving body; and a second contact disposed on said moving body; wherein said first contact and said positioning member are in contact with each other when said moving body rotates clockwise, said second contact and said positioning member are in contact with each other when said moving body rotates counterclockwise, and a movement angle, between a position at which said first contact of said moving body and said positioning member are in contact with each other and a position at which said second contact of said moving body and said positioning member are in contact with each other, is 180 degrees.
According to the above structure, because the accurate regulation of the position of the moving body can be realized with only a slight improvement in the conventional moving mechanism, the above object can be achieved inexpensively, resulting in a high economical effect. Also, since the position detecting means, the signal processing means, etc., are not required other than the moving mechanism, necessary and sufficient functions are provided without requiring excessive energy and space.
In addition, with the structure in which the moving direction of the moving body is merely made variable, the positioning of 180 degrees is enabled, and the sure positioning can be made under simple control.
Also, according to the present invention, in the above moving mechanism, a sensor that senses the movements of said positioning member and said moving body is disposed on said positioning member or said moving body.
According to the above structure, the completion of the positioning of the moving body can be accurately sensed with the results that the useless use of an energy is suppressed, and the moving body and the contacts are prevented from being deteriorated due to the useless movement, thereby being capable of improving the durability.
Also, according to the present invention, in the above moving mechanism, an ultrasonic motor is used for said actuator.
According to the above structure, a retaining torque is provided even at the time of the non-energization of the ultrasonic motor, thereby being capable of realizing a power saving structure which does not require a power for retaining the position of the moving body when the positioning of the moving body is completed. Also, since the ultrasonic motor is different in operating principle from the electromagnetic actuator which has been frequently employed up to now, a structure which has not been found up to now such that the thinning of the device in the direction of a rotating axis can be expected can be realized.
In addition, since the torque is large as compared with the electromagnetic actuator of the same volume, the downsizing of the device can be realized.
Further, according to the present invention, in said moving mechanism, at least one optical fiber that penetrates said moving body and projects toward said support plate side is disposed on said moving body, at least one optical fiber that projects toward said moving body side is disposed on said support plate, and an optical path that passes through the optical fiber disposed on said moving body and the optical fiber disposed on said support plate is changed by the movement of said moving body.
According to the above structure, the position of the optical fiber disposed on the moving body is changed in accordance with the rotation of the moving body, thereby being capable of completing a switch mechanism that selects the combination of the lights that pass through the optical fiber disposed on the moving body and the optical fiber disposed on the support plate. In particular, for example, in the case where a plurality of optical fibers are provided such that two optical fibers are disposed on each of the support plate and the moving body, there is obtained an excellent feature that the combination of plural pairs of optical fibers can be changed at the same time in accordance with the movement of one moving body.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an electronic device including the above moving mechanism therein, wherein a power is supplied to the actuator that constitutes the moving mechanism from a power supply disposed within the device, and the driving of the actuator is controlled by a control section.
The electronic device includes all of electronic devices to which the moving mechanisms of an optical switch, a measuring device, various light source generating devices such as a laser beam generating device, a light receiving device, a communication switching device, an optical circuit, etc., are applicable.
According to the present invention, with the above structure, the electronic device with the moving mechanism capable of positioning the moving body can be realized.